Apple would use voice, facial recognition as part of iPhone 'kill switch'
By Suzanne Choney

In a move that seems Big Brother-ish, Apple has a patent in the works that could use voice and facial recognition technology to activate a "kill switch" on its popular iPhone, shutting it down when hackers "jailbreak" or unlock the phone to install unauthorized programs on it, or try to steal information from an unsuspecting iPhone user.

Apple would track "suspicious behavior," the company said, including comparing the "identity of the current user to the identity of the owner of the electronic device," then notify the legal owner of the iPhone about the possible hack.

Marc Rotenberg, Electronic Privacy Information Center executive director, expressed concerns about potential abuses of such a system. "But more to the point, companies that sell products to consumers should not be able to enforce their views as
to what constitutes 'unauthorized use' post sale," he said. "Users should be able to control the use of their products, and that includes jailbreaking iPhones if they wish."

Lee Tien, senior attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, agreed. "The stuff in the patent that has to do with jailbreaking is an obvious concern, because thatís completely legal behavior Ė itís not like theft." And while it is still early in the patent process, Tien said, there are some "scary" issues around the technology, including where data collected by Apple would stored, and who would have access to it.

"Hopefully this would be entirely up to the consumer or user of the device whether or not they were going to buy into it at all," Tien said.

When asked about the patent, an Apple spokesperson declined to comment.

Both Tien and Rotenberg said Apple's actions could result in cases similar to what happened in a suburban Philadelphia school district, where tens of thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots on laptops issued to students were secretly snapped by the district.

Officials with the Lower Merion School District officials said the remote tracking system was activated to try to find laptops that had been reported lost or stolen. But the district admitted that the tracking system remained "on" for weeks or months, even after a laptop was found, and wound up taking 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from student laptops. So far, at least one student is suing the district over photos taken of him sleeping, as well as on instant messaging and video chats.

Apple's patent, "Systems and Methods for Identifying Unauthorized Users of an Electronic Device," was filed in February 2009, but published Aug. 19 by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. The "kill switch" would be part of a processor that Apple would create.

The company's patent includes some "1984"-ish ways in which it would find iPhone scofflaws. In some cases, Apple said, "a photograph of the current user can be taken, a recording of the current user's voice can be recorded, the heartbeat of the current user can be recorded, or any combination of the above.

"The photograph, recording, or heartbeat can be compared, respectively, to a photograph, recording, or heartbeat of authorized users of the electronic device to determine whether they match. If they do not match, the current user can be detected as an unauthorized user."

The ways a registered owner uses the iPhone and where it's used could also be obtained, Apple said. "For example, information such as the current's user's photograph, a voice recording of the current user, screenshots of the electronic device, keylogs of electronic device, communication packets (e.g., Internet packets) served to the electronic device, location coordinates of the electronic device, or geotagged photos of the surrounding area can be gathered."

"Unauthorized users" could be detected, the company said, by monitoring "activities such as entering an incorrect password a predetermined number of times in a row, hacking of the electronic device, jailbreaking of the electronic device, unlocking of the electronic device, removing a SIM card from the electronic device, or moving a predetermined distance away from a synced device."

Apple is proposing that when an "unauthorized user is detected, various functions of the electronic device can be restricted. For example, access to particular applications can be restricted, access to sensitive information can be restricted, sensitive information can be erased from the electronic device."

The company would then e-mail, text message or leave a voice mail for the legal owner of the iPhone to provide notification about an "unauthorized user."

Jailbreaking the iPhone has been an issue since the first model came out in 2007, although it's mainly limited to those who are technically savvy and are willing to void phone's warranty by doing so.

The problem of hackers looking to steal information is more recent; Apple released a software patch earlier this month to block hackers from gaining access to any iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad running the latest versions of their mobile operating system after security hole was discovered.

"Just because Apple could shut down your iPhone if itís 'jailbroken' doesnít mean Apple is trying to seize control of your digital life," wrote Brian Caulfield of Forbes. "In fact, if you want to keep control of it, you might actually want Apple to step in."

Said Tien of EFF: "Letís wait and see; it's early still with Apple's patent application. But there really are some serious concerns here."

turbogg

08-23-2010, 6:33 PM

Ehh, whatever. I'm not one to have my phones hacked, so this doesn't bother me.

rockdogz

08-23-2010, 6:42 PM

Not going to happen; jailbreaking is legal: Linky (http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-20011661-38.html?tag=mncol;txt)

d4v0s

08-30-2010, 1:31 PM

Jail breaking is legal, however att is trying to make it like the car companies, If you open up your brand new engine you will void your warranty from them.

Had a friend void his BMW warranty because the techs found small pieces of bunched up rubber (from racing tires) in the wheel wells and concluded he had been to a track recently. off topic i know

Back to apple/att. They are simply looking for a way to squeeze even more money out of their customers, It is sad as the iphone has a huge following, and most people are so amazed at what the iphone can do, these people went from razors (like my parents) to an iphone and didnt even realize that there are better (android) phones out there, for them though they are simply amazed at everything they can do. (read: get charged to do)

Its hard when the sheep get something in their head, just like the ipods, Zune are so much better, in everyway, yet has almost no market share. Good thing apply makes their products in lots of colors, god forbid those sheeple have the same color ipod.. :D

I still think its amazingly funny when someone starts showing me their paid apps, and i pull out better ones that i got for free, android rocks in that respect!

Scratch705

08-30-2010, 2:24 PM

so what if the registered user always wear a mask when using iphone? wonder how that works for facial recognition... haha

or just taping over the front facing camera(only on ip4) which will negate all facial recognition, since there will never be a photo to compare to

Gryff

08-30-2010, 3:27 PM

You realize that Apple has something in excess of 5,000 patents that they've never used, right? Just because they have a patent for it, doesn't mean that it's an imminent feature.

It is sad as the iphone has a huge following, and most people are so amazed at what the iphone can do, these people went from razors (like my parents) to an iphone and didnt even realize that there are better (android) phones out there, for them though they are simply amazed at everything they can do. (read: get charged to do)

Its hard when the sheep get something in their head, just like the ipods, Zune are so much better, in everyway, yet has almost no market share. Good thing apply makes their products in lots of colors, god forbid those sheeple have the same color ipod.. :D

I still think its amazingly funny when someone starts showing me their paid apps, and i pull out better ones that i got for free, android rocks in that respect!

Yeah, you have to be impressed when companies "do it better" than the guys who paved the way and made technologies a household name. It is much, much harder to improve on something than to create it.

GP3

08-30-2010, 3:31 PM

Google isn't a saint either.

MissionMTMan

08-31-2010, 9:37 AM

No they're not but they aren't as bad as apple. I shouldn't be talking though, I have an iphone :(

My excuse: I got it really cheap and I have the super cool JBM Ballistic calc for it.

JDay

08-31-2010, 10:22 AM

Had a friend void his BMW warranty because the techs found small pieces of bunched up rubber (from racing tires) in the wheel wells and concluded he had been to a track recently. off topic i know

I'll believe this when I see the part of the warranty that says driving the car on a track voids the warranty. They may deny maintenance work due to excessive wear on the track but they cannot deny warranty work unless they can prove that driving the car on the track is what caused the problem. In fact there are BMW dealerships who sponsor track events. There is a clause in the BMW warranty that says it is void if you use your car in competition though, however simply taking it for a spin on the track is not competition.

Exclusions from coverage include the following:
Items reimbursable under your New Vehicle
LimitedWarranty
Gasoline
Windshield washer additive (except when in
conjunction with scheduled maintenance)
Tires, wheel alignment, tire balance and
rotation
Wear and tear of soft trim items, such as:
seats, carpets, moldings, headliner, door
panels and all chrome trim
Damage which results from negligence,
improper operation of the vehicle, wear and
tear or deterioration due to driving habits or
conditions, improper repair, environmental
influences, flood, accident or fire damage, road
salt corrosion, alteration, installation of
non-genuine BMW accessories, or use of
improper, poor quality or contaminated fuel
Altered or unreadable Vehicle Identification
Number (VIN) or odometer irregularities or
vehicles where the true mileage cannot be
determined
Maintenance or repair after the vehicle is
deemed a total loss
Maintenance or repairs performed by other
than an Authorized BMW center within the
United States or Puerto Rico
Vehicles used in competitive events
Oil changes performed outside the
recommended maintenance intervals as
indicated by the Service Interval Display

Corbin Dallas

08-31-2010, 11:46 AM

I'll believe this when I see the part of the warranty that says driving the car on a track voids the warranty. They may deny maintenance work due to excessive wear on the track but they cannot deny warranty work unless they can prove that driving the car on the track is what caused the problem. In fact there are BMW dealerships who sponsor track events. There is a clause in the BMW warranty that says it is void if you use your car in competition though, however simply taking it for a spin on the track is not competition.

I thought he was saying, "Damn, the phone call just dropped! Oh, wait..."

Rekrab

08-31-2010, 2:19 PM

I love how Apple and AT&T spend millions of dollars trying to stop customers using the phones THEY paid for the way THEY want. If apple weren't so restrictive on what can and can't be done with their precious phone even this lifetime Mac-Hater would own one.

Rob454

09-05-2010, 12:35 PM

I got mine for cheap. its about the only reason I own a I phone. its the first gen Iphone. Ill use it till it breaks or switch services and Ill get something else. As long as i can do my time sheet and calendar take pics, send pics get text and check my email and have some songs and a movie loaded on there thats pretty much all I need or care for. I use my phone more like a tiny laptop. The apps are not a deal breaker of rme because I really really dont care about the apps.

Merc1500

09-05-2010, 12:38 PM

I love my Zune.:cool:

Toast

09-07-2010, 1:03 AM

Jail breaking is legal, however att is trying to make it like the car companies, If you open up your brand new engine you will void your warranty from them.

There's a difference between voiding a warranty and sabotage. Installing a kill switch that would (most likely) brick the phone after the purchase, especially while doing something legal is totally wrong. It's not any different then if a car manufacturer remotely blew up your engine if you were to install any aftermarket parts.

I like Apple products too, I have a Macbook and an iPod touch. I was thinking about getting an iPhone 4 but At&t sucks and I like my Android based phone more. I really don't like the route Apple is taking nowadays...

thefifthspeed

09-07-2010, 3:54 AM

As popular as the iPhone is I would bet money that if such a program were to be implemented that somebody would find away around it in a week.

As much as I like open source, expandable memory, and flash I'll still probably get the iPhone 4 in a month or 2. Call me a sheep or whatever makes you feel better but it's a solid, stable product that has an easy to use interface plus I'd like to simply transfer all of my previous stuff over from the 3GS.

JDay

09-07-2010, 4:46 AM

As popular as the iPhone is I would bet money that if such a program were to be implemented that somebody would find away around it in a week.

It would be a hardware based solution and just like the PS3 it would take years to come up with a reproducible workaround, if ever.

thefifthspeed

09-07-2010, 5:07 AM

It would be a hardware based solution and just like the PS3 it would take years to come up with a reproducible workaround, if ever.

I guess until they actually come out with a prototype to what this article claims I would assume it would be part hardware/part software that makes this facial recognition system work in conjunction with this "kill switch".

It would also be interesting to find some type of statistic to find out what percentage of iphones/ipods are jailbroken. Part of me thinks if apple truley wanted to curb people modding their devices they would have done something by now which makes me beleive this "kill switch" device will never be implemented, but who knows.